Transparencey International released Its index on corruption on Wednesday February 21, 2018; The index, which ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to experts and businesspeople, uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean. This year, the index found that more than two-thirds of countries score below 50, with an average score of 43. Over the last six years, several countries significantly improved their CPI score, including Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal and the United Kingdom, while several countries declined, including Syria, Yemen and Australia.

In the case of Hait with a score of 22, that Caribbean country is the second most corrupt country in the region behind Venezuela. Ranking 157 and 169 respectively among the 180 countries scored.

Corruption in Haiti is endemic; it is a severe and widespread problem in all levels of government. Current President Jovenel Moise who has called corruption “a crime against development” has been under heavy criticism for not doing more to combat this issue, especially after many high ranking officials in his administration are under investigations for money laundering or embezzlement of state funds.

The President has also heavily been involved in killing the so Called PetroCaribe corruption report, penned by the senate ethics commission accusing numbers of former and current officials of wasting mismanaging and embezzling more than $3 billon of Petrocaribe funds.